Contents

Summary

Official Solicitation

The Shattered World Crisis continues! 'The Chase' Part One: Uncle Chuck and Professor Pickle - captured by the nefarious Dr. Eggman! It's up to Sonic and the Freedom Fighters to secure the precious kidnapped cargo from the Egg Train! But they're going to be in for the surprise of their lives when they discover that there are more than just Badniks guarding it - can Sonic handle the deadly, mysterious E-106 Eta? Featuring a special CGI 'Return of Princess Sally' variant cover by Rafa Knight!

Story One

The Chase: Part One

In the Soleanna Forest Zone, the Knothole Freedom Fighters-utilizing Extreme Gear, the Tornado, and Antoine D'Coolette's Twister plane-swoop in on the Egg Train carrying the kidnapped Uncle Chuck and Professor Pickle. Team Freedom-Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Antoine-are tasked with rescuing the captives, while Team Fighters-Sally, Bunnie, Rotor, and NICOLE-head to the front of the train to determine the professors' exact location. The roof hatch of the front car proves quite the obstacle, with Rotor's Omnitool proving useless and Bunnie's arm laser making a hole too small for any of the Mobians to fit through. Hitting upon an idea, Sally drops NICOLE's computer form through the hole, and the rather peeved A.I. manifests her hologram form in order to access the train's on board computer. Unfortunately, her presence alerts E-106 Eta, whose attempt to smash her with a piston arm destroys the train's controls, causing the vehicle to accelerate uncontrollably.

Recognizing the change, Sonic and Amy spring into action to locate the captives via a car-by-car sweep. Meanwhile, Chuck and Pickle are also made aware of the train's increase in speed, though Pickle seems blissfully ignorant of the severity of their predicament. Eta's attack on NICOLE continues, until she manages to throw her computer self to Sally and dissipate her hologram. With no convenient means available to them, the Mobian trio take up the same strategy as Amy and Sonic, attempting to locate the professors by removing roof hatches one at a time. Amy manages to smash in a hatch, only to discover a car full of explosives-which she nearly manages to detonate. Fortunately, she manages to prevent another near disaster by alerting Bunnie to the situation, and the two work together to continue the search. Elsewhere, Sally and Rotor have teamed up as well, though they succeed only in locating a refrigerator car carrying food supplies for Eggman.

Sonic's efforts land him in a car full of Badniks, who manage to follow him outside and attack the planes. Sally, noticing their plight, contacts Bunnie to aid them, but is unable to communicate as easily with Amy. Fortunately, the pink Hedgehog quickly decimates several Badniks with her Piko-Piko Hammer. Sonic is similarly successful, but is thrown from the train-along with the others-as it lurches around a tight turn. Rotor and Sally are saved by their Extreme Gear, and Amy is rescued by Sonic, who uses the airboards as spring boards to get back on board. Leaving Amy-somewhat to her annoyance-with Sally and Rotor, who set their sights on another roof hatch. Sonic, going off on his own, manages to locate the professors, and is left somewhat perplexed by Pickle's continuing lack of concern. Chuck then warns his nephew that they have bigger problems than the train or even the world breaking apart-but before he can elaborate, Eta breaks into the car.

Off Panel

Chuck and Pickle are in the food car, Chuck expressing his concern over Muttski before wondering about Pickle's assistant, Cucumber. Pickle explains that he asked him to check in on his new girlfriend, whom he met on a dating site. The unfortunate assistant is greeted at the door by Mama Robotnik in a pickle suit, which Cucumber complains he isn't getting paid enough to handle this.

Quotes

Sonic: Ahh... The wind in my spines. It's almost like were going fast--heh-heh!

Chuck:Mmph! Not your fault, Dillon. The train lurched! In fact, it feels like we're accelerating to dangerous speeds.

Prof. Pickle:Hmph! I shall have to have a word word with the conductor. This is no way to run a railroad. These accommodations are beastly! And I ordered my lunch hours ago! Honestly, how difficult is it to prepare a proper cucumber sandwich, I ask you?

Chuck: Calm down old friend. Hopefully, this means we're about to be rescued.

Prof. Pickle: I should hope so! Come, help me find the call button for the steward.

Amy:Ha! Open says-a-me! (Sees the car is full of missiles, a few of which she dented) O-o-okay! We're going to be much more delicate with the next car! Yes! And we don't need to tell anyone that we nearly blew us all up! Do we? No! Of course not! Ha ha ha--argh...

Bunnie: You stubborn so-and-so! Fine, ah'll at least get a bit of give by blasting...

Amy:No! Bunnie! DON'T SHOOT! I just came from a car full of missiles!

Bunnie: Oh, mah stars! Ah could've blown us all up!

Amy: Don't...don't beat yourself up over it.

Rotor: Let's not brain someone further down or take out one of the planes with a flying chunk of metal.

Sonic (smashing into a train car): I've got a good feeling about this one! Hold on, Chuck! I'm--(finds the car is full of badniks)--in the wrong car. (To the badniks) My bad! You guys can go back to sleep...or stand by...or whatever it is badniks do. I know the way out, so I'll just--(the badniks attack him)

Sally: Remind me again why I didn't have Omochao and T-Pup coordinating comms?

Rotor: Because they couldn't fly fast enough to keep up with the train.

Sally: Right. Remind me to get you and Tails to build us some headsets before the next mission.

Rotor: Can we worry about this mission FIRST?!

Sonic: Heh-heh-whew! You should've just let me walk away. Well, not "walk". I don't walk. But you know what I--(gets cut off mid-sentence as the train goes around a curve)

Amy: Oh, thank you, Sonic!

Rotor: Nice!

Sally: Thank goodness!

Sonic: Yeah-yeah-yeah, I'm awesome. Let's save the rest of the hero worship for the victory party.

Background Information

Tyson Hesse, the artist behind the issues main cover, stated that an earlier version of the cover featured several obscure Archie Sonic characters appearing in the red stream behind Sonic, but were edited out per Archie's request, due to several of said characters no longer being allowed for use. Hesse is apparently unable to share the original version due to legal reasons. It's implied in one of his posts that one of the characters that appeared on the original art was Sleuth "Doggy" Dawg.

The main cover marks the first appearance of Silver, Jet, and the Chaotix post-Worlds Collide.

This issue's solicitation originally stated that E-107 Theta would debut in this issue, but Ian Flynn later confirmed that he was replaced by E-106 Eta due to the former's ties to the Light Mobius timeline.

The Egg Train and its intended destination-Bullet Station in the Rail Canyon Zone-are all from the game Sonic Heroes. The Soleanna Forest through which it travels is from Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).

In one of the cars of the Egg Train, there is a box that resembles the metal boxes in the game Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, appropriate to the setting Soleanna Forest Zone, which was a level in the game.

The other cargos were labeled "JUNK FOOD" and "JUNKIER FOOD". Most noticeably, another cargo was labeled "EPIC SANDWICH INGREDIENTS", which could be a reference to the giant sandwich Orbot gave to Eggman for dinner in the game Sonic Unleashed.